Fall River Line
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The Fall River Line was a combination steamboat and railroad connection between New York City and Boston, completed in early 1847. The railroad portion ran from Fall River via Middleboro and Braintree along a line of the Old Colony Railroad. The steamboat portion of the journey traversed Mount Hope Bay, and Narragansett Bay, stopping at Newport, Rhode Island, then continuing out to the open Atlantic Ocean after rounding Point Judith, and crossed Block Island Sound to enter the sheltered waters of Long Island Sound, continuing on to the piers on the Hudson River in Lower Manhattan.
The elite of the US Eastern Establishment, such as Astors, Vanderbilts,and others used the line to travel between New York City and Boston, and to travel to their palatial summer homes in Newport, Rhode Island as well.
Notable books on the Fall River Line include : Floating Palaces : New England to New York on the Old Fall River Line; by Roger Williams McAdam; published by the Mowbray Company; Providence, Rhode Island; 1972. New England Steamship Company : Long Island Sound Night Boats in the Twentieth Century; by Edwin L. Dunbaugh; published by the University Press of Florida; Gainesville; 2005. Splendor Sailed The Sound : The New Haven Railroad and The Fall River Line; by George H. Foster and Peter C. Weiglin; published by Potentials Group Inc., San Mateo, California and Mid-state Associates, Tucson, Arizona; 1989.
